Releases available from all good outlets, including Monorail Music, Rubadub Records, Rough Trade Shops, Juno Records, Piccadilly Records, iTunes et al. Links to buy each record via iTunes can be found at the end of each release description.
Chris Carter "The Spaces Between" OMCC001
Release Date ~ 20th September 2010
Format ~ Digital EP / 12" EP
Originally recorded between 1974 and 1978 at Industrial Records studio in London 'The Space Between' album was first released as a 90 minute cassette in 1980 on Throbbing Gristle's Industrial Records label. It wasn't until 1991 that it was again released by Mute Records on CD. Although tracks from 'The Space Between' have appeared on numerous compilations since its release, the album has never been available on vinyl until now.
This new vinyl edition on Optimo Music, now retitled 'The Spaces Between', doesn't include all the tracks of the original album but has been enhanced and remastered from the original two-track master tapes and has new cover artwork especially for this release. All tracks have been remastered by Chris Carter in 2009 for this release.
Musically, itÕs an electronic soundtrack for a sleazy sci-fi movie, with moments of uplifting beauty combined with bits of claustrophobic mania. Amazing stuff.
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Louise McVey & Cracks in the Concrete "Louise McVey & Cracks in the Concrete" OM007
Release Date ~ late December '09
Format ~ Digital Single / 10” EP
Having returned to her native city Glasgow during on-going artistic explorations, Louise McVey met Graeme Miller. Their shared passion for dark unexplored musical territory has made for a very fruitful creative period; exploring dusty pianos, scuttling guitars, sonorous vocals and selective percussion. Also joined by Gordon Macpherson on drums, Jimmy O’Donnell on piano, and Garry Freckleton on bass guitar, McVey and Cracks in the Concrete create the sound of a cigar-filled room with a strangely wayward band: bow-stroking guitar and sultry torch singer wooing and terrifying the audience who are probably too mesmerised to move.
Alluring and provocative, Louise McVey & Cracks in the Concrete are just the latest in Optimo Music’s quest to find the perfect band for the next David Lynch movie. However, this one may just have too much mainstream appeal?
Listen and decide for yourself...
Older Lover "Older Lover" OM006
Release Date ~ September '09
Format ~ 10” EP
Glasgow-based artist and musician Douglas Morland's solo guise as Older Lover is a smoky, noirish take on psychedelia, with glam stylings and dub sonics thrown in for good measure. Both the flickering silhouettes and magical lustre of the silver screen and the spooky hold on the imagination of the pulsing, saturated analogue signals of the immediately pre-digital cold war period are as much influences as any musical genre, past or present.
Recorded and produced with a nod to the grain and patina of these past eras, via the homemade waywardness of Swell Maps or The Homosexuals, the Older Lover EP is an astute and compelling exercise in dark and seductive rock n roll.
"The Older Lover is black of heart and forked of tongue. He'll steal your youth, he'll tear your drum. He played guitar with thee brigands Mother and the Addicts and was known for his filthy electric scree and mellifluous twang, but is playing away from home now, darkening doorways. Billowing coattails. Shadow. Hot breath. Flash of Knives..."
Cracula ∞ Demon Seed ∞ Primitives ∞ The Protest Singer
Divorce OM005
Release Date ~ June '09
Format ~ 10” EP
Born in Glasgow through a frustration that THEIR kinda music wasn't getting heard in the city, DIVORCE decided that instead of adding to the choir of miserablists and moaners they would instead 'make their own scene'.
Brought together through random encounters, solid friendships and drunken obsessive discussions at terrible parties, the five members who make up DIVORCE (Sinead Youth: vocals - Hillary Van Scoy: guitar, vocals - VSO: bass, vocals - Andy Browntown: drums, vocals - Vickie MacDonald: guitar ) had no more of an exacting agenda than just MAKE NOISE and MAKE IT GOOD.
The end result has been likened to a roughly grafted assemblage of no-wave punk bands like Teenage Jesus & DNA, the pig-fuck noise of Big Black and Swans and the modern-styled rhythmically violent sounds of bands like AIDS Wolf, Ex Models and PRE.
Divorce are best experienced live, in a small sweaty room, with all the ear-splitting volume & uninhibited audience confrontation that goes with it. Shows in Glasgow and around the UK are being planned right now.
Early Christianity ∞ Pipe Down ∞ Juice of Youth ∞ Scissor Fight
Dollskabeat "Zodiac Rising" OM004
Release Date ~ June '09
Format ~ 10” EP
DOLLSKABEAT is a solo artist, producer and performer. Part Scot, part Belarusian, part Spacer Woman. A Gemini by sign, her musical creations rather than personality are equally split with sounds, hooks and melodies from alternative electronic, disco and RnB, whilst the arrangement and lyrics go pop in formation.
A handful of demos played on BBC 6 Music & BBC Radio 1 granted her an invite to the Maida Vale studios to record a live session as the BBC's Scottish 'Artist to Watch for 2008'. Classical piano training and home made tracks built momentum, however insight into past and present production techniques coupled with live instrumentation gave her songs new life.
DOLLSKABEAT loves to dance, play vintage synths and drum machines. She performs with her live 4 piece Dollska-band. The result is an extrovert show of sound, shapes and colours.
DOLLSKABEAT recommends you listen with open ears and hearts. Minimal synth. Maximum feel.
Zodiac Rising ∞ No Breaks No Sleep Part 1
Big Ned "Big Ned" OM003
Release Date ~ April '09
Format ~ CD
Optimo Music release the debut self-titled album from BIG NED in mid April.
"Bad Angel", the debut single for ‘Ned, is out now in the shops in ltd. 7" format – only 500 copies and backed with the 7" only track “Killer”. I’m personally waiting for the Richard Ramirez Night Stalkin’ electric chair mix.
Lux Interior will be smiling up from Hell.
Den Haan "Release the Beast" OM002
Release Date ~ March '09
Format ~ 12” EP
Den Haan are the dynamic Glasgow duo of spacial electronical disco grooves. Matt (Crème de Menthe – Disko B) and Gardi seemed to have met in some Italian discotechque circa 1979 if their sound is anything to be believed. However, they are far from a retro pastiche. They ooze camp funk, glitter and glamour – you only need to see them perform live to see what we mean. One would expect to see Giorgio himself make a guest appearance on the stage.
They list their influences being from AC/DC to Zappa, Boney M to Yello and Azoto to David Zed.
This 3-track debut 12” features “Release the Beast”, a bona-fide floorfiller in Glasgow (be it Optimo to Death Disco), “Metamophosis” – a Cowley-esque, camptastic anthem, and “Looking for Love” – pure sequential space disco.
Italo-Glasgow?
Why the hell not.
Release the Beast ∞ Metamorphosis ∞ Looking for Love
Big Ned "Bad Angel" OM001
Release Date ~ early February '09
Format ~ 7” Single (limited to 500)
BIG NED are two twisted Glaswegians: D. James Clark and John Murray, with a penchance for dark and twisted tales and tones. “Bad Angel” is backed with “Killer”, only available on this limited 7”.
Imagine David Lynch gets stuck into a barrel of booze with a big crooning cowboy. Tales of dark liaisons, women trouble and spiritual prowess are finely blended with an array of dark melodies, terror noises and warped guitars. This is an album with dysfunctional America coursing through its veins and oozing from every pore. This concoction of sleaze, fuzz and death is difficult to categorize. Who cares?
Obvious influences are David Lynch, Angelo Badalementi, Smog, Nick Cave, Elvis, Swans, Cash, Chris Isaacs ‘Wicked Game’, Carl Denver and the Gun Club. And most likely Satan.
Thrown into this electric soup is Charles Bukowski, Repo Man, Gummo, Lost Highway, Clint Eastwood, the Bible, the Devil, Glasgow City Barbers window display, Casper the Friendly Ghost, and every impressive boxer who ever entered the ring.
For Big Ned, this is the soundtrack to drag racing, zombies, drinking, shop lifting, dancing like a maniac, arm wrestling, fucking, smoking and Lee Marvin putting the boot in. One hand raised in the air with a stiff middle finger, the other raised with a glass of whisky; saluting those with charm and machismo that make music a delight and who entertain.
The debut LP from Big Ned will follow later this spring... live shows will also ensue. Expect mayhem, chaos and maybe even death. It’s hard to say….
Bad Angel ∞ Killer
